Studies in the Geography of Ancient and Medieval India c21.21

c21.21

People of North Bihar have great regard for the Varāha-kṣetra even to-day. There is again no doubt that the culture of North Bengal was intimately associated with that of North Bihar before the former territory was flooded by Mongolian migrations. It was therefore quite natural for the people of the Dinajpur region to visit the Kokāmukha *tīrtha* even in the Gupta age. The *śreṣṭhin* Ṛbhupāla apparently went to the Varāhakṣetra-Kokāmukha on pilgrimage and after having returned home dedicated a large area of land in his native district in honour of the two gods enshrined at the holy place. But it was not quite easy for him to send the income accruing regularly to distant Nepal. The pious Ṛbhupāla therefore made two temples of the same gods, near the lands originally granted, together with two storehouses.¹ He appears to have installed in these temples two imitation-gods of the same names. That is why the gods in the *Himavac-chikhara* have been styled *ādya*, *i.e.* ‘original’. This is further suggested by the distinction of the places indicated by the two expressions *Himavac-chikhare* and *iha* occurring in the second passage quoted above from Ṛbhupāla’s record. About half a century after Ṛbhupāla, Amṛtadeva granted lands in favour of the temple of Śvetavarāha. This is no doubt one of the temples founded by Ṛbhupāla in the Dāmodarpur region and not that of the original god in the Himalayas. We have to take note of the fact that the expression *Himavac-chikhara* is conspicuous by its absence in the record of Amṛtadeva. Instead of any reference to the Himalayas, we find here the temple located in *atr=āraṇye*, *i.e.*, ‘here in this forest,’ which no doubt formed a part of the Koṭivarṣa *viṣaya*.